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Ruth is so jealous of her married sister and so loath to lose her long-time mommy friends that she resorts to pretending to be pregnant.

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It’s a completely crazy idea for a film but it mostly works thanks to Sonja Bennett, who does double duty writing her debut screenplay and playing Ruth.

It’s inevitable that Ruth’s fake pregnancy game will come to light (and the way in which it does is something you will remember for a long time). But we grudgingly root for Ruth as she goes from a shallow party girl to a woman who realizes she’s got a lot of growing up to do.

It’s too bad the script didn’t give James Caan as Ruth’s dad more to do and doesn’t give more screen time to Danny Trejo as a mischievous janitor who works with Ruth and connives in her faux blessed event.

Director Jacob Tierney does his best to keep the story hopping along, though it does feel a bit laboured (pun intended) at times.

Still, Bennett creates a memorable character in feisty Ruth and there’s enough comedy and redemption to make Preggoland an enjoyable romp.

Can't Stand Losing You tells the story of the Police.

Sonja Bennett plays Ruth, a woman faking pregnancy to spite her sister and keep her friends with James Caan playing her father in the comedy, Preggoland.

Arabella Bushnell plays Carol, a woman who uses music to exorcise her demons in Songs She Wrote About People She Knows.

This by-the-numbers look at The Police based on guitarist Andy Summers’s 2006 memoir One Train Later, Can’t Stand Losing You will rock the band’s fans and those who never missed a Police Picnic at Exhibition Stadium with a hit of nostalgia, aided by the multi-talented Summers’s all-access pass black-and-white photography.

If Summers’s narration often sounds stilted, it’s because he is, after all, reading from his book. The stories of how the band formed, went blond, rocked the world, commanded the then-fledgling MTV airwaves and then broke up due mostly to Sting’s ego are all well-known.

What’s more interesting is this look at Summers’s past as a member of Eric Burdon and the Animals, being shortlisted when the Rolling Stones were looking for a new guitarist to replace Mick Taylor and enjoying “special” mushroom omelettes with new pal John Belushi in Bali.

The stories are bracketed with the lead-up to The Police’s 2007 reunion tour and while it is an obviously one-sided version of rock history, Can’t Stand Losing You is a reminder of what this reluctant punk band that perfected a reggae-spiced pop-rock sound achieved, and the strength of the music they made.

Carol is an enigmatic woman, with a cool gaze reminiscent of a house cat. Yet she’s deeply unhappy. Why else would she show up at a music therapy program seeking help?

And though Carol leaves the class with a dismissive “I need to go,” it doesn’t take long for her to take heed and start composing and singing her discontent to their people in her life.

That includes boss Dave, for whom Carol’s hurtful song is revelatory. He immediately quits his job while firing her in the process, drawing the two together in a zany and unexpected journey.

“Huh?” you may wonder. But Songs She Wrote About People She Knows is both perversely funny and engaging as the voluble Dave (a wonderful Brad Dryborough) and the repressed Carol seek the path to a happier life with the assistance of a hapless record studio owner named Silent G (Ross Smith).

While Arabella Bushnell is mesmerizing as Carol, it’s director Kris Elgstrand’s original script (along with some wryly amusing songs) that’s sublime in the simple truth it offers: although we all hurt inside, expressing that pain and reaching out to others can be a balm for the soul.

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